Parties confident of reaching deal in nursing dispute

The long-running dispute between Victoria's nurses and the Government appears to be nearing its end.

Both sides are confident of striking a deal within a fortnight.

Nurses have lifted all of their work bans, paving the way for new negotiations.

There will now be 10 days of intense negotiations at Fair Work Australia.

But the issue of nurse-patient ratios may still be a sticking point.

In any case, all sides have promised to have a resolution by next Friday.

The Premier Ted Baillieu will not say what prompted the change of tact, but say he is confident an agreement will be reached.

"We have a process to resolve this, we have a timetable, and we're looking forward to that happening," he said.

Lisa Fitzpatrick of the Australian Nursing Federation says she is prepared to negotiate, but will fight hard to maintain the nurse to patient ratios.

"We've got very good arguments for maintaining safe standards of care," she said.

The Victorian Hospitals Industry Association says it too, is confident the nurses dispute will soon be resolved.

The Association's Chief Executive, Alec Djoneff, says hospitals want to work with the nurses to reach an outcome.

"I have good reason to believe that the remaining negotiations and conciliations will be done in a very professional and constructive manner," he said.

"That is not to say there won't be rigorous debate, there will be. These are highly complex matters, carrying with them considerable sensitivites.

"The parties have made a fair bit of progress on the key matters.

"No agreement has been reached, but we have had some discussions that have given us confidence that the conciliation process will enable us to substantially dispose of the matters in dispute in that timeframe," he said.

Legal action from both sides has also been suspended...

But thousands of nurses will still have their pay docked for walking off the job in defiance of a Federal Court order.